About Balance, Equilibrium and Symbolic Exchange #92

2023

Recycled plastic/Augmented reality

This project transforms the viewer into a collaborator in the artistic process by inviting them to define the value of art through voluntary financial contributions. The object, crafted from recycled plastic and designed like a roly-poly toy, achieves physical equilibrium through these donations—metaphorically reflecting the fragile balance between creativity and economic sustainability. The more the audience contributes, the more stable the structure becomes, literally embodying the idea that art exists through support.

The work explores the duality of money and art as abstract systems whose value rests on collective agreement. Virtual objects generated in augmented reality become subjects of symbolic exchange—the viewer 'purchases' not a material thing but an experience, emotion, or idea. This process blurs the lines between the transactional and the gift-based, reminding us that even voluntary donations can be a form of recognizing art’s worth. The project reimagines money not as a tool for commerce but as a way to transform calendar time into qualitative experience, where each contribution becomes a gesture of gratitude for the chance to engage with creativity.

Philosophically, the object engages with theories of 'alternative currencies' and symbolic exchange, where value emerges from subjective perception. The delicate recycled-plastic construction underscores this system’s fragility, while augmented reality adds layers of perception by blending the real and the digital. Here, art is not a commodity but a catalyst for dialogue: What sustains creativity—the artist’s talent or society’s willingness to support it? The object offers no answer but balances on the edge of these questions, like a roly-poly that sways but never falls as long as hands are there to steady it.